Who’s Got the Action

Phil Colbert — issued in August 1965 on Philips 40313, b/w “The Long Long Tunnel” (Freddie Scott, Helen Miller); both sides arranged by Horace Ott and produced by Hal Mooney

The copyright registration number and date as given at copyrightencyclopedia.com is EP0000209430 / 1965-11-05, though the song was probably written in 1962. As Serene Dominic suggests in his book Burt Bacharach: Song by Song, “Who’s Got the Action” may have been submitted for consideration, or written under contract, and rejected for a Dean Martin film of the same name released in 1962. Martin recorded a different song, a bit of fluff, with the same title for the film. However, there is at least one known instance of Bacharach co-writing a song using a film’s title and story after viewing the completed film. He and Hal David did so with “The Hangman” in 1959. As far as I know, Bacharach didn’t write with Hilliard after 1962. This is the only recording of the song that I’m aware of. — comments by doc

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Who’s Got the Action (m. Burt Bacharach, w. Bob Hilliard)

Searching and longingFor something specialSomething to go with the mood I’m inLose or winWhere are the thrills that I’m dreaming about constantly

Tell me who’s got the actionWho’s got the action for me

Watching and waitingFor some excitementSomething to go with the things I feelSomething realI want the wind to blow all of the leaves off my tree

Tell me who’s got the actionWho’s got the action for me

I’ll take chances I’ll put my life on the lineAnything to fill these empty arms of mineThat’s why I’m…

Restless, and reachingFor something extraSomething to go with the mood I’m inLose or winLove of my life, tell me where is the world end to be

On 24 February 2012, I looked for the lyric to “Who’s Got the Action” without success. The title is missing from a couple of major Bacharach lyric collections (See the links at the bottom of my Burt Bacharach Index). Several general Google searches using significant lines or phrases turned up only a couple of lines in the online Santa Cruz (CA) Public Libraries sheet music catalog. So I transcribed the words that day. Colbert enunciates very clearly.